Apples and qi

Since his "retirement" my father has been busier than ever. Not only is he teaching more hours at different universities (he teaches translation) but he and my mother have gone full swing into creating a center called Club O for parents and people interested in an alternative, greener lifestyle. They offer free vegetarian lunches and host all sorts of events, such as yoga, meditation, qigong, reiki seminars, so on and so forth. They've even opened an organic shop next door...

My aunts and uncles are all involved in various capacities, and not surprisingly, I've been - as they say in Cantonese - dragged into the water as well. Here are photos from 2 movement meditation sessions I lead.

Since Craig and Miriam I have been somewhat obssessed about the idea of having of a crowd of people walking around balancing pieces of fruit and veg on their heads. The challenge of the task is one of the quickest ways I know of getting the average person to become present in their bodies. Plus it really looks/feels kind of silly, so it's a great chance for us all to be silly together...

Schloss Broellin

I had cherries off the tree for breakfast this morning. All the ones on the lower branches had been munched away, so I had to clamber up to the upper reaches to pick glistening handfuls. What a treat!

It's the end of the first week here at Schloss Broellin, where I am at for a month long butoh/ art-labour residency. Today, thankfully, is a day of rest... something we could all do with. Though out of habit or the morning light I was awake at 5:30am, and ended up in the studio (via the cherry tree).

Broellin is a farmhouse estate turned into art haven. The dining hall used to be the granary, and studios and galleries former sheep and cow sheds. The gradual renovation is still in progress, with us being part of the labour. So from 10:30-2pm we have butoh training, 4-8pm we have 'art labour'– which for the past week has involved making steel candleholders for the dining hall. I worked with steel for the first time.

The days are rigorous. I am sore from parts of the body which have never been sore before. Add to the fact that we didn't have proper movement class in the craziness of the past 6 weeks, et voila. Sore muscles.
I find that much of the training here is about how to access one's source of infinite energy. I suspect that it is a very similar source to how mothers (and fathers) find that energy to change nappies in the night; out of love and necessity. So much of what I am learning is how to keep going by staying in touch with the meaning of one's work.

Butoh classes with Yumiko are challenging. I feel like a plant that has encountered a wall, and has to figure out a way to adapt and grow in spite of, and in use of this challenge.

One of the most challenging things in this work is the constant contortions and tensions. We pull a lot of faces in this work, and do things which feel unnatural to the body. Crossing one's eyes. Freezing in a position for a while. I find it difficult to hold tension for a sustained period of time. I think this resistance has a little bit to do with the fact that over the past few years I have been trying to relax my body from unnecessary tensions. Thus my reflex action is to attempt to release, rather than sustain muscular tension.